If Dearborn residents are inclined to counterprotest against a group with a Quran-burner at an upcoming city council meeting, the city’s police chief has a request: stay home.
Dearborn Police Chief Issa Shahin, in a social media video posted Wednesday, Aug. 12, called on city residents not to attend the next Dearborn City Council meeting solely to confront outside provocateurs. Shahin did not name the outside groups he was referring to. Still, right-wing agitator Jake Lang previously posted a flier for a “Christian Crusader March” at the meeting to “Stop Islamification.”
“These groups that are coming here are coming for one reason, and that’s to provoke a reaction and generate attention,” Shahin said in the video. “If nobody shows up to react,
they have nothing.
“The most powerful thing that this community can do is to refuse to give them an audience.”
Though not the first to target the city in this capacity, Lang, from Florida, has repeatedly visited Dearborn, the home of the highest concentration of Arab Americans among U.S. cities, to spout derogatory rhetoric regarding Muslims.
Lang was previously pardoned by President Donald Trump in connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, protests in Washington, D.C.
Previous visits have seen Lang hitting a Quran with bacon, trying to burn a Quran before counterprotesters stepped in, and physical scuffles.
Lang previously filed a lawsuit against the city, saying he was physically attacked and pepper-sprayed while there.
Earlier in August, Lang made an appearance at a religious holiday procession in the name of peace for Shia Muslims in the city.
Video posted to social media indicated Lang was approached and struck by several individuals at the gathering as he shouted into a megaphone about “illegal immigrants.”
An Iraqi immigrant and two others were charged in connection with reported assaults at the event, with the Iraqi immigrant subsequently arrested and detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The agency cited a violation of the terms for legal admission into the U.S. after a second-degree murder conviction in the death of a woman struck by a van. His case had been pending before the Board of Immigration Appeals.
In the case of the upcoming city council meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 18, Shahin said his department has been monitoring the situation and coordinating with law enforcement partners.
Residents with business at the meeting can attend and will be safe, the chief said. There will be an increased law enforcement presence.
He urged community members not to give outside groups “exactly what they want” in the form of attention.
“Don’t let a handful of hateful outsiders define who we are,” he said. “Dearborn is stronger than this.”
Staff writer Niraj Warikoo contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Dearborn chief tells public 'stay home' ahead of right-wing agitator visit
